Anyone traveling in metropolitan traffic today is painfully aware of the automobile congestion which turns a twelve-minute commute into forty-five minutes or more of breathing the foul air that is responsible for more than one-half million unnecessary American deaths each year and billions of hours of lost production time.
In the United States today, ninety-eight percent (98%) of those trips are made by gasoline-powered private automobiles. They alone are responsible for more than forty percent (40%) of urban air pollution.
Various plans and programs have been put forth to solve these twin problems, the most prominent of which is increasing mass transit ridership. Taking as an example, a metropolitan area of two million inhabitants, any new or expanded mass transit system which could handle three to five million of the seven million person trips made each day in a timely, economical and non-polluting manner would solve both problems--just as long as the people would utilize the system:
Unfortunately, that is apparently not possible. The primary and most important reason is that traveling by transit is not as "convenient" as traveling in one's own automobile. Today, less than two percent (2%) of the population rides mass transit and even the most ardent supporters of "`born-again` 19th Century streetcars" (a.k.a. light rail) predict no more than a fifty percent (50%) increase in ridership following installation of a new system. The futility of such an approach is proved by the fact that a fifty percent (50%) increase in ridership still leaves ninety-seven percent (97%) of the travelers driving their own gasoline-powered automobiles!
The introduction of a modicum of full-sized electric automobiles in the years ahead, as required by recent California legislation, will further congest traffic by adding more vehicles and may actually result in increasing air pollution. The imposition of more restrictive automobile fuel efficiency standards may help reduce pollution, but we are told that ninety-eight percent (98%) of what can be achieved in this area has already been accomplished.
The only solution other than the imposition of new regulations which would tell citizens when to drive and where to live--is to create a new type of mass transit system, one which uses no fossil fuel and provides the same or greater convenience in metropolitan areas as the privately owned gasoline powered automobile. The creation and the economy of building and operating such a system is facilitated by the fact that seventy-five percent (75%) of all automobiles driven in city traffic today carry only one person.
It is to these problems and dictates of the prior art that the present invention is directed. It is a transit system for use in an urban environment which serves not only to reduce dependence upon foreign oil and to limit air pollution, but it also reduces traffic congestion and provides an environment in which a commuter can work. It is anticipated that this all will be accomplished at a modest cost for installation and operation.